Mayank Bhatt

Mayank Bhatt worked as a journalist in Mumbai, India prior to resettling in Canada in 2008. Unable to find employment in the journalism field, Bhatt worked at a series of jobs including a security guard, administrator and arts festival organizer.

Fiction

Belief

Publisher’s Synopsis (from its website)

An upright and modest Muslim family in Mississauga, Ontario, discovers by accident the plans to bomb public places in Toronto on their son Rafiq’s computer. Belief tells the story of the family’s escape from Bombay to Canada following the communal violence of 1993; their small success, epitomized by their proud ownership of a house; and Rafiq’s attraction to fundamentalist Islamic ideas. Rafiq, it appears, has rejected the planned act of terrorism, organized by an evil charismatic genius, but how can he explain its details found on his computer? Told simply, impartially, and with understanding and empathy, Belief describes the trauma of a family unable to understand their child as they anxiously await his fate.